The Latest: 20 die in stampede at Gaza food distribution site as Israeli strikes kill 41 others

A stampede at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip killed Palestinians on Wednesday the group disclosed in the first acknowledgment of deadly violence at its operations The Gaza Humanitarian Fund an American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip s population announced people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern city of Khan Younis The organization accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence though it provided no evidence to backing the claim The deaths came as Israeli strikes killed others including children in Gaza City and Khan Younis according to hospital personnel The Israeli military announced it has struck more than targets in the past hours across the Gaza Strip including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities Israel blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because the group often operates in residential areas Here s the latest Israel strikes near defense ministry in Damascus The Israeli army revealed Wednesday that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus as clashes continued in the southern Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between regime forces and Druze armed groups collapsed Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of establishment forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the confines It has noted it is acting to protect the Druze religious minority The Druze religious sect began as a th-century offshoot of Ismailism a branch of Shiite Islam More than half the roughly million Druze worldwide live in Syria Most of of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel including in the Golan Heights which Israel captured from Syria in the Mideast War and annexed in Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos at food distribution site Gaza s Robustness Ministry and spectators noted GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd outside one of its food distribution hubs causing a panic The ministry stated that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites They used stun grenades and pepper spray against us They had aid inside but they intentionally did not distribute it to let people crowd outside disclosed Abdullah Aleyat who was at the GHF site on Wednesday morning Omar Al-Najjar a resident of the nearby city of Rafah commented people were gasping for air possibly from tear gas The injuries were not from gunfire but from people clustering and pushing against each other Al-Najjar explained as he carried an injured stranger to a hospital The sites are inside Israeli military zones protected by private American contractors Israel troops surround the sites but the army says they are not in the immediate vicinity The United Nations human rights office and Gaza s Medical Ministry stated Tuesday that Palestinians in the enclave have been killed while seeking food since May with of those in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by GHF Source